Jatiya Party (JP) Chairman Hussain Muhammad Ershad on Saturday said that his party was no longer with the Awami League-led grand alliance. “We will formally clear our position soon through a press conference. But we are no longer with the AL-led 14-party grand alliance. Our presidium member GM Quader has already resigned from the cabinet,” he said while addressing a conference of Juba Sanghati at Engineers Institute in the capital. “I am on the horns of a dilemma now. The people of the country will consider me as a ‘broker’ if I take part in the election. Nobody knows what will happen to us if we don’t take part in the election. But I will not do anything that will prove harmful for the nation,” the former president of the country said. “The people of the country will call me a betrayer if I support the autocratic Awami League,” he said, adding, “I don’t want to die as a betrayer.”
“While ruling alliance is preparing for the parliament election within the constitutional deadline of Jan 24, the BNP-led Opposition alliance is opposing it and asking for restoration of the caretaker government to conduct the polls,” said the JP Chief mentioning that the ruling corrupt government could be ousted only through election.
“I want to form an alliance. I will do that and an announcement will come soon in this regard,” he said adding that he did not want to do anything that could move the nation move towards darkness.
Pointing to the government, Ershad said that it had killed the innocent people mercilessly in the dark of night. It had washed the blood-stained streets after killing the people. But the government had failed to wash the heart of the nation.
Secretary General of JP ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader, presidium member GM Kader, Kazi Firoz Rashid, Ziauddin Ahmed Bablu, Professor Delwar Hossain, Mir Abdus Sabur and SM Faisal Chisty, among others, also spoke on the occasion.
-With The Independent input
